4th of july

Hendrix really enjoyed his first 4th of July.   The day was filled with lots of sunshine, bright colors, balloons, parades and food.  What's not to love?

It was our first year to spend this holiday in Ames just as a family and it was really nice.  The 4th is my dad's birthday so we generally have celebrated with him in our hometown, but this year we celebrated early with him and decided to start our own family traditions. 

We started out with the parade, meeting up with some friends to watch. 

Since Hendrix really enjoys people watching, the parade was fun for him, though it didn't take long before he decided that he should be walking around too!  He doesn't sit still for very long these days!

After a fun afternoon of swimming we welcomed some friends for a bbq and some fun playtime before the fireworks.  We live really close to where the fireworks go off so it seemed like a natural fit ;)

The kiddos liked playing in Hendrix's ball pit, and it was fun to see him warm up to it so much more when he saw other kids enjoying it.  Normally he seems a little bit nervous about all the balls, but he was all smiles!

He really loves having other kids around to play with. :)

Then the big kids played with fire while Hendrix took a lil' snooze to get all rested up for the big fireworks show.

I am not sure if it was because we woke him up to head to the fireworks, or if it was just because they were setting then off too close to where we were sitting (and thus they were too loud); but Hendrix hated the fireworks.  I was really surprised by his reaction, but he was scared and just kept crying.   So we headed home before they really even got going.

Oh well.  

We had a beautiful day, and since we only had to walk half a block home, we were still able to watch the end of the fireworks show through our window while Hendrix snuggled into my lap.

Happy first 4th of July, sweet boy!  

Maybe you will enjoy the fireworks next year!   ;)